Surviving firms left with no option but to look for new business

Even businesses with great service and satisfied customers must now look to generate new business if they are to survive a punishing recession as it continues to put good firms out of business, according to the UK’s leading sales expert Andy Preston.

Whilst the phrase ‘it is always better to service existing customers than look for new ones’ still rings true, Preston warns that the marketplace has changed and many businesses will be finding themselves losing customers through no fault of their own, due to mergers, acquisitions and other businesses going bust.

“As the market gets tougher, those ‘safe’ existing clients simply aren’t as safe anymore. For those customers that stay around, the people who you’ve struck up good relationships with may be losing their jobs, or the company is cutting costs, therefore your profit margins are going to be squeezed at the very least.  Your customers are also very likely to be looking at other options, either doing away with your product or service entirely, or looking at your competitors far more than ever before in a bid to get the cheapest prices they can”, explains Preston.

Preston, who is also director and Head Trainer of sales performance training company Outstanding Results, believes that the savvy companies right now will be looking at implementing ‘new business’ drives to replace existing clients or customers they have lost and are focusing on bringing in profitable new business.

“The ability to bring in new business in the current market could mean the difference between a very profitable year for you and your company, and a very difficult one….or even one where you struggle to stay afloat”, says Preston.

For more information visit www.andy-preston.com.

For press enquiries please contact Rebecca King on Rebecca@mediajems.co.uk or 01603 283506

Lazy Gen Y Graduates must fight to prove their worth as jobs diminish

A shortage in graduate positions this summer means that newly qualified graduates must break the ‘Lazy Generation Y Stereotype’ and fight to prove their worth in a rapidly shrinking graduate job market, warns leadership specialists at Dynamic Transitions.

Following on from reports that many students may end up graduating and going straight onto the dole queue due to a lack of available jobs, Dynamic Transitions’ MD Judith Germain is urging graduates to wake up to the fact that they need to radically revise their approach to job applications and interviews if they are to stand a chance of gaining employment in the current economic climate.

“Graduates need to be realistic in the jobs that they seek, as they already face scepticism in their ability to achieve by employers who believe that they only have academic knowledge and little experience. There is also a long standing belief that graduates academic knowledge is inferior to previous years and that graduates are lazy, under skilled and difficult to manage”, explains Germain.

Germain, a specialist in the differences between Generation X and Generation Y workers, believes that new graduates will fall victim to the negative connotations associated with Generation Y employees, which is why they need to work harder to prove their worth and their value to the business.

“There is a distinct clash of culture between the X & Y generations. At the moment ‘Y’ are generally ‘the workforce’, with ‘X’ or ‘Baby Boomers’ being ‘the managers’. Managers, especially ‘Baby Boomers’ think employees should do long hours at work and put the needs of the business above all else. Generation Y employees believe that their work can be done without spending hours at work and at a time that is convenient to them. Generation Y are used to studying whilst accessing digital or social media technology like IPods, Facebook, Instant Messaging and multiple ‘windows’ on their computers in the name of multi tasking. This leads them to believe that it’s essential to do many things at once in order to concentrate and therefore complete tasks. For example, Generation Y employees cannot understand why they can’t sit at their desk listening to their Ipod whilst they work, but to attempt to do this will lead to disciplinary action by the typical Baby Boomer or Generation X manager”, explains Germain.

“Things are moving faster and more dynamically than in the past and the cycle of change in business is nearer two years than the ten years that it used to be. Graduates need to show future employers that they are flexible, willing to work their way up and are good potential employees. They need to show employers that they are more interested in the business than they are in themselves”, adds Germain.

Judith Germain is founder of Dynamic Transitions Ltd, a leadership company specialising in dealing with Mavericks in the workplace and Troublesome Talent®. For more information visit www.developing-leadership.com.

For press enquiries, please contact Rebecca King on 01603 283 506 or email rebecca@mediajems.co.uk
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Unpaid overtime could spell premature ‘burn-out’ for top talent

Fear-stricken employees are putting in more overtime hours than ever before due to fears of redundancy, but by doing so risk burning out before the economy picks up again, leaving many businesses short of valuable talent, warns talent management specialists at Dynamic Transitions.

Following reports that over 5 million people worked unpaid overtime last year, equalling over £26.9bn worth of labour, Dynamic Transitions’ MD Judith Germain is warning employers not to take the goodwill of their employees for granted, by requesting staff work long unpaid hours. “The balance needs to be struck between running a profitable business with reduced margins and the need for employees to be satisfied and have meaning in their jobs” she observes.

“Employees should not be made to feel that they need to do overtime due to fear of losing their job, as the knock on effect of such pressure is an increase in sickness, poor morale, distrust and contempt for the employer. In the short term, this is also likely to result in poor customer service, reducing customer satisfaction and decreased profits. However, the real impact on the organisation is not likely to be seen until the economy picks up and staff leave in droves, leaving a severe talent shortage at a time when consistent customer service and knowledgeable staff are an imperative”, says Germain.

Germain, a specialist in managing Troublesome Talent® in the workplace, says that the organisations’ top talent (or Mavericks) are naturally inclined to work longer hours to achieve their goals, providing their efforts are recognised, rewarded and the overtime is not forced upon them. “Many workers, especially in the City have worked longer hours for years and it is knowing that they are doing it without force or fear that makes them happy to do so”, says Germain.

Germain advises that a good internal communications programme is vital to ensuring that employees remain motivated and aware of the current situation the business is facing, and don’t feel that their efforts are simply being taken for granted.

“Employees just need to know what is going on and feel like they are involved in the future of the business. Employees need to see that the organisation isn’t just sitting back and admitting defeat but is fighting to build its position in the marketplace and that the team is a core part of the organisation’s future. If employees know that the business wants to survive, and they can see their role in determining its future, they are more likely to want to do all they can to save it and will feel more positive about any unpaid overtime that might be required”, says Germain.

Dynamic Transitions is a leadership company specialising in managing Troublesome Talent®. You can download their free whitepaper ‘Harnessing Maverick Talents’ at www.developing-leadership.com/whitepapers.html For further information or to find out more about Dynamic Transitions visit www.developing-leadership.com or telephone +44 (0) 208 288 0512.

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For press enquiries please contact Rebecca King at Rebecca@mediajems.co.uk or 01603 283506

Lack of engagement blamed for charity donation crisis

A focus on wallets rather than relationships is seeing many charities that rely on ‘opportunistic’ donations such as collection tins on the street facing a battle of survival as organisations that have worked engaging with their audience continue to attract pre-recession donation levels says community development specialists at Abelard Management Services.

Amidst reports that charities such as NSPCC, Shelter and Oxfam are suffering from the sharp decline in donations, specialists at Abelard believe that a lack of engagement has meant that smaller voluntary organisations now face the biggest challenge as people become conscious of the aggregate cost of small expenditure and choose to redirect donations to their personal needs instead.

"People are becoming conscious of the aggregate cost of small expenditure and choose to redirect donations to their personal needs instead"

“In the charity sector, engagement with the audience is absolutely critical. Charities that have a following of committed contributors who are engaged with the charity and share their concerns will be far more successful in the current climate. They are able to maintain conversations with their contributors and maintain buy in to the cause. That helps them make decisions, often hard decisions, about where to make cuts in the use and application of reduced funds”, explains William Buist, MD of Abelard Management Services.

Buist, a specialist in rapidly improving trust and common fellowship in teams and communities, believes that whilst tougher times do mean that contributions will fall, they also mean that opportunities to make better use of the money that is available will also be available to those charities which can embrace the emergence of the ‘Societal Web’.

“What matters most right now is the impact of the charity and the outcomes they achieve. The best charities will achieve as much as they ever have (or more) in a recession economy, but they can’t do it alone. Their success lies with a loyal and committed audience who recognise the needs and values they hold as important”, explains Buist.

Well-connected charities will be able to tap into goodwill, time and contributions of personal effort, as well as focusing simply on getting cash in. The challenge in the current environment is how to tap into the strong goodwill that still exists for the charities but that can’t now be met through cash donations. It’s a time to be innovative”, adds Buist.

For more information visit www.abelard-uk.com

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Editors’ Notes

William Buist is Managing Director of Abelard Management Services, which specialises in building trust in teams and communities within its corporate and SME client base.  William has had a 22 year career in Insurance, including serving as Head of Business Risk Management and Chief Underwriter for Lloyds TSB Insurance, where he also engaged with a number of consultations with Government on behalf of insurance industry bodies.

In 2001 he became a director of a consultancy company that focuses on supporting corporate teams delivering major change, where he has achieved substantial success with many medium and large clients.

William personally focuses on online community development, social networking and collaborative development within and between businesses.   He is also president of the Ecademy Life Members Community – a premium global group of Entrepreneurs and Business Owners.

For further information, to arrange an interview or for hi-res images please contact:

Rebecca King
01603 283 506
Rebecca@mediajems.co.uk

Christmas Day in Cairo for UK’s Busiest Sales Trainer

Despite the economic slowdown, business has never been better for leading sales trainer Andy Preston, who is jetting off to Cairo today to deliver a five day training workshop which is set to finish on Christmas Day!

Having recently returned from a working weekend in Dubai, jet-setting Preston, 33, will be delivering his highly acclaimed ‘Sales Success’ course to a team from one of the world’s leading IT companies, which starts on Sunday 21^st December and ends on Christmas Day.

The course will cover sales motivation, making more appointments, needs analysis, identifying buying signals, negotiating fees and closing the deal, and is designed to help the team, based in Cairo, to get a better return-on-investment from their sales efforts.

Preston, who is also Director and Head Trainer of sales performance training company Outstanding Results, believes that the Christmas period is the perfect time to invest in training and will work to inspire the team as they move into another difficult year ahead.

“The economic outlook for 2009 is bleak, meaning that businesses will have to continue to work even harder at generating sales and bringing new business in.  This year has shown us that no business is safe, not even the most established brands on the high street. Managers therefore need to ensure their sales teams are motivated and well-equipped to manage the inevitable increase in objections which occur in recession times”, explains international speaker Preston, who is currently writing a book on the subject of ‘Selling in a Slowdown’, which is due for release next year.

“The IT industry have been hit particularly hard by the credit crunch in terms of staff morale, motivation and clients putting off buying decisions, and it is my aim to improve their sales mindset so that they can come back in the new year with renewed energy, drive and determination to succeed”, explains Preston.

 Andy Preston is director of highly acclaimed sales training performance company Outstanding Results. For more information visit www.andy-preston.com.

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Accountants told ‘being different is more important than being better’

The recession presents new challenges and opportunities for accountants, but if you carry on doing what you’ve always done you will not be as successful as you were in the past, warns Tax Advice Network Chairman Mark Lee.

In his capacity as presenter of a hard hitting seminar ‘Mastering the credit crunch – your practice, your advice, your future’, held at various locations during November and early December, Mark Lee encouraged accountants to review and revise their plans for 2009 to reflect the realities of the recession.

During the seminars, many of the accountants in attendance indicated that to date, the majority of their new clients were secured through word of mouth referrals; few of the accountants however had any form of structured referral plan. Mark explained that the recession makes it likely that some of their clients will go into liquidation, and so they will need to work harder than usual to just maintain their current profits. And whilst the best way to generate more work will always be through their existing clients, accountants will need to network more effectively than they have done in the past.

“Networking means building profitable relationships” says Mark, “Beyond your clients you can build relationships with potential introducers too, but do not expect new contacts to introduce you to prospective clients until after they have grown to know, like and trust you.” “In time there need be no shame in asking for referrals” says Mark “Although you will make it easier if you ensure that your clients and contacts understand what sort of new clients you are seeking. And also make sure they know if you have some specialist expertise or a niche, something that makes you different.”  

“It can be more important to be different than to be better”, continues Mark. “Someone who has yet to experience your services cannot judge the quality. Your assertions will mean less than something that makes you stand out from all of the other accountants who all seem to be doing the same thing in the same way for all their clients.”

Mark also advised that accountants whose clients test them with unusual tax problems and queries will need to access more cost effective specialist tax advice in the recession. Mark’s Tax Advice Network with its vetted, independent, specialist tax advisers is an option being chosen by an increasing number of accountants looking to outsource high level tax advice.

Despite the fact that Mark’s practical half day seminars were attended by hundreds of accountants, he has no immediate plans to repeat the seminar and has instead made his comprehensive slides and notes available from the Tax Advice Network website (www.taxadvicenetwork.co.uk/seminar19) free of charge for silver-plus members of the site and £37 (incl 15% VAT) for visitors and silver members.

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Retailers’ focus on product knowledge lost Sony the sale

Electronic giant Sony’s plans to cut 8,000 jobs due to falling high street sales reflects a worrying and widespread problem with retail sales staff whose focus is on product knowledge instead of delivering a good sale, warns UK sales expert Andy Preston.

According to Preston, an international speaker and trainer on new business sales techniques, the main issue for Sony and others who rely on the high street to sell their products to their customers, is that most retail sales staff are too used to the ‘easy sale’, that is, dealing with people who have already decided at some level that they want to buy. Such customers require little more than someone to provide product knowledge and transactional support, but as the market becomes tougher, Preston suggests that staff are increasingly needing to adopt more persuasive selling techniques in order to encourage cash-strapped customers to buy.

 “Retailers are having to face the stark fact that the days are long gone when their sales staff could respond to the question ‘what’s the difference between product A and product B?’ by reading out the brief information on product labels, something that the customer could quite easily do themselves”, explains Preston, director of sales performance training company Outstanding Results.

After recently visiting a London based electronics retail store to meet with its sales staff and discuss their sales techniques, Preston found that like many staff in this area of retail, their focus still remained heavily on the product, instead of the needs of the customer.

“Staff selling electronic goods tend to rate their worth as a salesperson on their ability to memorise and recount detailed product information. Many are very proud of their specialist knowledge and can sometimes be reluctant to try new techniques or approaches which focus less on their knowledge and more on building a good rapport with the customer”, says Preston.

“Sales skills are set to become even more prevalent in 2009 and the retail sales staff that are motivated, determined, service-focused and provide a professional service to customers will succeed in winning business and customer mindshare from their competitors. Think back to when you bought a product or service from a retail store and whether your decision to buy or not had anything to do with the person serving you – experience tells me in most cases it will have”, adds Preston.

For more information visit www.andy-preston.com

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Online network membership soars are business owners go ‘virtual’

UK business social network Ecademy has reported a surge in membership over the last quarter, fuelling speculation that offline networking is falling second place to the web as the most cost effective means of growing your business during the credit crunch.

Hailed as the only networking site designed specifically for business owners, Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) has reported that its membership has more than doubled over twelve months, and with the average time spent on the site up by over a third, its founder Penny Power believes this reflects an increasing confidence in utilising the web to build credible business connections, whilst keeping networking costs to a minimum.

Online networking is providing small business owners with real, tangible results

“I’ve noticed a distinct decrease in attendees at many of the offline events I have attended in recent months as the battle to keep expenditure down during the credit crunch continues and many of the business owners I have been speaking to are seeing real, tangible results from their online networking activity”, explains Power.

Ecademy member Liz Vandorpe  (http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=92889) is one such member who has gained business through the Ecademy network and believes that its core strength is that all its members are of a certain calibre, with a similar way of thinking.

Harwood was astounded when she received orders for her recently published ‘The Blessings Book’ within just 2 minutes of placing a blog and online listing on Ecademy last week.

“My experience is that Ecademy operates likes a virtual dinner party. All the guests (members) seem to have a genuine interest in helping each other and this week’s order is testament to the success of this high calibre, professional social network in helping small businesses to flourish”.

“Online business networking is increasingly becoming an integral part of 21^st Century business and utilising business social networking sites such as Ecademy and LinkedIn

is by far the most cost effective way to gain new business, establish business partnerships and establish new friendships along the way”, adds Power.

For more information visit www.ecademy.com

Starting a business with your husband still brings tax benefits

If you are thinking of starting a business, be sure to consider the benefits of starting it with your husband so that you can take advantage of the tax savings still on offer through income splitting, advises UK entrepreneur Penny Power.

Speaking after the filming of her latest show for yourBusinessChannel TV, Penny Power suggested that women looking to start a business could gain both financial and emotional rewards from entering into the business with their husband, as she did ten years ago when she started the UK’s first business social networking site Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) with her husband Thomas Power.

Husband and Wife Team Penny and Thomas Power

“Providing your partner doesn’t have any taxable income of his own, or at least isn’t in the higher tax bracket, sharing your business with your spouse is not only emotionally rewarding but you can gain valuable tax savings too by sharing the income, enabling both of you to receive the maximum benefit of running your own business without jumping into the higher tax band”, explains Power.

Whilst the Pre-Budget Report noted that the Government “firmly believes it is unfair to allow a minority of individuals to benefit financially from shifting part of their income to someone else who is subject to a lower rate of tax”, any planned rules dealing with the issue have been deferred as a result of the “current economic challenges”. Instead, ministers said, the issue will be kept under review.

“With a greater emphasis on outsourcing work in 21^st Century business, there are plenty of opportunities to start up your own business. Whether you have skills in administration, marketing, customer service, events, accounting, design or can offer specialist consultancy advice, there has never been a better time to get out there and carve a profitable niche for yourself”, says Power.

Mark Lee, Chairman of the Tax Advice Network (www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=108906) advises anyone thinking of adopting income sharing to avoid rash decisions and says, “At the moment, sharing of business income is intended to ensure that both husband and wife use the full amount of their basic tax band rates. Husbands and wives can sometimes secure some tax savings by each of them holding shares in the family company, so that they each receive dividends. BUT it’s best if they are both actively involved in the business. You also have to work all the numbers through to see whether it is worthwhile and you should get specialist tax advice before making any firm decisions”.

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For more information or to arrange an interview with Penny Power or Mark Lee, please contact Jenna Gould on 01603 283 503 or email info@mediajems.co.uk

Sales inspiration at dawn brings in 20K just in time for Christmas

A businessman from Farnham will be having a very merry Christmas this year after sealing a last minute business deal worth over 20K, following inspiration from an early morning sales training breakfast event in London.

After attending the highly acclaimed Sales Training Breakfast Club on 3^rd December, Colin Marks*, a recruitment specialist, was at Waterloo station intending to catch his train home. Emboldened by training breakfast, delivered by international speaker and leading sales trainer Andy Preston, Marks decided on the spur of the moment to ring up one of his clients and get a meeting then and there and subsequently secured over £21k of retained business.

“I don’t consider myself a salesperson, but as the owner of a small business, I don’t have much choice but to sell to my customers. Andy is well known for training sales professionals but he can also provide the same inspiration and motivation to those of us who have to do it ourselves because the very survival of our business depends on it”, says Marks, 41.

First launched in Manchester in March 2008, the club is designed to help small business owners and sales people who often do not have access to good sales training, as it is usually very costly.  In the face of difficult trading conditions, Preston believes the Sales Training Breakfast Club gives people the ideal opportunity to learn how to make their business thrive, even during a recession.

“It was attending Andy’s breakfast club that spurred me on to making the call to the client. Small businesses really need to push forward during the credit crunch and take advantage of any opportunity to gain new skills and this was definitely worth getting up at 5am for”, adds Marks.

Preston, who is director of sales performance training company Outstanding Results, says “I started the Sales Training Breakfast Club to give small business owners like Colin a unique opportunity to get involved with something that suits their budget, their diary and provides instant return-on-investment”.

The next Sales Training Breakfast will be held in Manchester on Wednesday 10^th December 2008. The next London event will be held on Wednesday 11^th February 2009. For more information visit www.salestrainingbreakfastclub.com or call 0845 130 6779.

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* Due to client confidentiality agreements, Colin Marks’ name has been changed.